Regular old mousepads when you’re gaming are so passe: what you really need is a good, solid mousing surface that won’t make your desk all dusty, won’t clog your mouse’s sensor with dirt or grime, and won’t hinder you moving your mouse across its surface.

Sure, you could grab a roll of wax paper and make this mousepad, which is arguably one of the greatest, but if you’re willing to drop some cash, try this teflon and steel model from Rude Gameware. Called the Fierce Teflon and Steel Mouse Surface, it’s probably the closest thing you’ll get to a frictionless mousing surface this side of a physics problem with real-world constraints removed.

The only downside is that it’ll set you back $30 bucks plus shipping, but hey – if you spent an easy $60 on your mouse, it might be worth it for that competitive edge.

[ Rude Gameware :: Fierce Teflon and Steel Mouse Surface ]

Over at Unplggd, they have a roundup of PC cases – I know, it sounds borning unless you’re a DIY or computer-building enthusiast, and since I’m the type of person who builds his own computers, it naturally drew my attention. Where it’ll pick up your attention however is in how pretty these cases are.

A few years ago, PC cases used to largely be translucent, covered in LEDs and lighting, and usually had clear walls and fronts. More modern PC cases feature more sleek and streamlined designs – brushed aluminum and steel, attractive but subtle edges and design across the front or back of the case body but clean lines. The kind of cases that make you want to pull the guts out of a perfectly good PC and install it all into something new and shiny like these.

I’m particularly fond of the NZXT cases – like the H2 shown above. Head over to Unplggd to see the all of the featured models.

[ Unplggd :: Stylish PC Cases For Your Tired Looking Tower ]

Over at Google I/O last week, one of the interesting but under-reported items on the event floor was the Meta Watch from FOSSIL. The folks over at This Is My Next managed to play with it a bit, and in an age where people are generally shedding wristwatches entirely in favor of phones (which all have clocks on them anyway,) the Meta Watch wants to do something a little differently.

What if, for example, you could check your SMS messages, read them, see how many e-mails you had unread, and more, as well as the time, date, and weather? If your watch were more of a companion device, paired with your smartphone, would a watch be a more attractive device?

That’s FOSSIL’s goal. The two models of Meta Watch pair with your Android phone to deliver relevant information to the watch face, while your watch stays on your wrist and your phone stays in your pocket, away from prying eyes or thieving hands.

Here’s a video of the watch in action, thanks to This Is My Next:

[ Meta Watch Hands-On: The Wristwatch Gets A Second Wind as a Smartphone Companion ]

The folks at PC Mag sat down and got busy thinking about what some of their biggest pet peeves around technology were. Horrible autocorrect? Check. People trying to multi-touch all over your laptop or desktop display? Check. People who want to borrow your phone because it’s different than theirs and they need to compare? Definitely.

This slideshow is one that’s worth clicking through, if for no other reason than the hilarious photos involved like the ones above. They’re fantastic to see, and you’ll agree with every single one, without doubt.

[ PC Mag's Biggest Tech Pet Peeves ]

I actually have a bottle opener attached to my wallet (you never know when you’ll need one) but if I didn’t, I’d consider this: a CTRL+O bottle opener, straight from the folks at Art Lebdev, known world-wide for awesomely geeky designs like the famous (or infamous) Optimus Maximus Keyboard.

The opener is available for purchase direct from the design house for about $18, but I’m sure they’ll hook up with a retailer like ThinkGeek anytime now to get it stocked and sold on American shores. Still, it’s small and thin enough that you could keep it in your wallet or pocket if you wanted to, and it’s a perfect way to always have an opener on-hand when your officemates decide to crack open a brew.

[ Art Lebdev :: Ctrl+O Bottle Opener via Thrillist ]

Now here’s a project that I think I could take on – not because I need another computer, but mostly because I could use having a gaming PC that doesn’t take up as much space as my current tower does. The beauty of this rig is that it’s up to date and can play pretty much anything popular today, and has enough horsepower to play some of the biggest titles planned for release this year.

If you’re thinking about updating your gaming rig and you want a solution that doesn’t take up a world of space, take a look at this how-to guide. The slideshow walks you through every step of the process.

[ PC Mag :: How to Build a Powerful Portable Gaming Desktop PC ]

One of the things I adore about fun and quirky little “see what the future will be like” technology expos and specials are the ones that take you into what the future home will look like. In this case, up in Redmond, Washington, Microsoft maintains their own vision of what a futuristic home with Microsoft’s embedded technology would look like.

Now granted, a home like this would be impossibly expensive and heaven forbid most of this technology is commercially available yet, but slowly but surely it’s becoming a reality. Don’t mistake the “slowly” part there though – most people don’t have the money or the desire to invest in this much tech in their homes. That said, that’s okay! This is an expo home anyway, a display of what’s possible should the market demand it.

The home of the future will talk to you, help you decide what to wear, and tell you whether you have the ingredients to make your favorite dish tonight. In a way, it thinks for itself, but it’s no real AI – so no worries it’ll go ahead and take Skynet live.

Check out a video tour of the home at the BBC:

[ BBC News :: Inside Microsoft's Future Home ]

I wrote about Trudi over at Geek.com, but couldn’t resist mentioning her again. She’s adorable, she’s cute, she’s clearly a little baby turret, and Jonathan Guberman put so much time and love and care into her that she needs to be shared with the world.

If you’re a Portal fan like I am, you probably have a kind of love/hate relationship with the Sentry Turrets. I mean, they have so much personality, but at the same time they’re clearly trying to kill you (unless you trick them, but no spoilers, okay?) whenever you move across their path.

Still, that didn’t stop Jonathan from building a sentry turret of his very own using an Arduino, some elbow grease, and a good friend’s help. Check out the resulting video:

You can read more about Trudi and how to make a Trudi of your own over at Jonathan’s blog, Up, Not North:

[ Up, Not North: Portal Turret Plushie ]
[ Portal Turret Plushie is Interactive, Adorably Awesome ]

You know, I could get used to this.

And honestly, here’s hoping I have the opportunity. Apparently the weekend before last and the time before that were well enough received by the team at Lifehacker (and of course, the community,) that the crew there asked me back again, and I was more than happy to do it.

So I had the chance to take the reins again last Sunday and churn out content for Lifehacker, and I like to think this week was even better than the last. Here’s what you missed, if you weren’t paying attention:

• Simple Tips that Make Moving Easier

  It helps that I’ll be moving soon, but I had to share some great tips that I stumbled on around how to make the moving process a little easier. I mean, it sucks no matter which way you go about it, but you can make it easier on yourself by preparing properly, making sure you keep the most important things available and identified so you can unpack them first, and organize things the way you want them when you get to the new place. Minimizing a bit also helps. As for me, I’m in the middle of doing all of those things.

• Say No Without Wrecking Your Career

  If there’s anything I’ve learned in trying to navigate the corporate maze, it’s about how to let your supervisors and management know clearly that you’re pretty much tapped out – without, of course, being disrespectful and landing yourself in a position where someone questions your capability to work effectively. In this piece, I share how to go about doing it.

• Five Best Cheap Travel Booking Sites

  This post and its predecessor where I called upon the readers to let us know what their favorite sites to book cheap travel with are part of the Hive Five series. The sites that made it into the roundup are pretty much the ones I expected, but there were still a few surprises. The ITA/Matrix site is a new one to me, but I’ll tell you here’s one thing I didn’t realize until I saw the votes: Kayak clearly has a posse.

• Family-Friendly Spring Exercise Tips

  When I got the call to do another weekend, I knew I wanted to share an outdoors-y type exercise post. Sadly, they don’t seem to resonate quite so much with the LH readers, but I think it was well liked anyway – honestly, I think there’s still a strong “tech” element to the Lifehacker name, even if there have been more lifestyle posts lately. Still, I found a great article about how to encourage your friends and family to get out and get some exercise, and considering the weather is getting warmer, why not share it?

• Bridg.me Calls You When the Conference Starts

  I actually stumbled on this one a bit late: the download I was thinking about writing about on Thursday got snapped up by another writer on Friday, so I had to adjust at the last minute. No worries though, this new service promises to call you when your conference call is supposed to begin instead of forcing you and your call participants to join a bridge line. With some more detail, I think it can get some real traction.

• One-Line Tips to Stay Creative

  Sometimes, my friends are some of the best sources of inspiration for me, and I stumbled onto this piece at Tumblr thanks to one of my friends’ tweets. I took it to heart personally, seeing as I’m a writer by and large, and would like to be more of a writer if at all possible. Just because it’s my passion though doesn’t mean that I don’t have those times where I just can’t figure out what to write about. Now I have a little cheat sheet to help me stay motivated.

• Use Plasti Dip to Fix Stripped Headphone Wires

  I almost didn’t expect this one to get the traction it got, but it did – I mean, the makers of the product started following me on Twitter and expressed their appreciation. All I did was write about it guys, the guy over at Instructables that originally posted the tip deserves the credit! Still – it does look like an awesome product and an awesome idea. I’ve lost several great headphones to separated wires like this, and I’m definitely going to try it next time one of my pair starts to go this way.

That does it! Now all I have to do is see if anything else comes from this round of guest posts, and I certainly hope it does. I really enjoyed guest posting at LH, and I’m hoping they ask me back again soon!

PC Mag took your votes in multiple categories to come up with a definitive list of the most influential products of all time. From mobile devices to gaming to desktops to operating systems, they laid out the candidates and the public voted on which products have made the most impact in the technology world.

I wouldn’t have included the image of the Atari 2600 if it hadn’t won in the gaming category, but the original Nintendo Entertainment System was pretty close behind, nipping at its heels. The battle in the operating system category between Windows 3.1 and MacOS was pretty fierce, as was the battle between the Apple Macintosh and the Commodore 64 in the desktops category, but you’ll have to click through to see the results of that battle: I’m not about to spoil it for you.

[ PC Mag :: The Five Most Influential Tech Products of All Time ]